That “presumed amount”, Tullow confirmed, is the $142m capital gains charge the company paid on the sale of two thirds of its Ugandan business to CNOOC and Total for $2.9bn.

The Ugandan Revenue Authority demanded a $473m levy on the deal; the $142m paid by Tullow is the 30pc required by Ugandan law to dispute the assessment, with the outcome expected later this year.

In the meantime, Tullow’s High Court battle against Heritage Oil to recover the $313m capital gains charge it paid after spending $1.45bn on the company’s Ugandan assets will open in London on March 11.

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This is the same run-in with Heritage, oil-hands will remember, for which Foreign Secretary William Hague “lobbied strongly” on Tullow’s behalf in 2010. Like Diary said, taxing times.

Still in search of buyers

The deadline for parties interested in buying the International Centre for Financial Regulation think tank out of administration was Monday.

But administrator Zolfo Cooper, which is handling the sale, can’t tell Diary how many other think tanks have put in bids for the ICFR’s intellectual property – it seems the market needs more time.

“I can’t comment at the moment, but we are continuing to review the sale and the deadline has been extended,” says a spokesman for Zolfo Cooper. There have been no offers, in other words.

What could possibly be putting buyers off the organisation that is subject to an ongoing police investigation after one of its managers allegedly made off with £550,000 of its funds?

Black is the new black for designer Tom Ford. The one-time Gucci creative director famously clashed with the brand’s late chairman Maurizio Gucci for always wanting to make everything “square and black”. Now Ford has got his own way – Diary hears the maestro insisted all the male security staff at his London Fashion Week show on Monday wore black suits, black shoes and black socks. Bizarrely, no beards were allowed – except on Ford himself – and staff had to hand back their all-black outfits at the end of the event. What will Ford do with all those once-worn men’s suits?

Arching ambition

Still on fashion designers, Giorgio Armani is rumoured to be in the frame to transform the Admiralty Arch into a five-star hotel.

According to more excitable accounts, Armani – who has already branched out into hotels in Dubai and Milan – will personally design “every aspect” of the 80,000 sq ft London landmark, from furnishings to menus. But the Grade I-listed building’s owner, Prime Investors Capital, maintains that “no deal has been signed”.

“We are talking to a number of luxury companies,” said a source, who assured Diary the successful hotelier “will be very high end”.

Europa Oil & Gas has some explaining to do. What did the Aim-listed explorer mean by a “back to back workover” in its six-monthly revenue update? “Basically plumbing and piping,” says Diary’s oil and gas translator. “We forget how little Joe Public knows about the business, so that is why some jargon creeps in.” That’s no way to talk about your retail investors…

Ramsay's pig of a trademark

Gordon Ramsay has now registered the brand name, after applying last November – but then handed it straight over to The Spotted Pig eaterie in New York, whose owners fiercely opposed Ramsay’s “shameful” move.

Of course, now Ramsay has secured some of David Beckham’s football millions for the pair’s forthcoming joint venture in Borough Market, he can afford to be more altruistic.